The UN’s ‘International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’ was inaugurated in 1966 to commemorate the 1960 Sharpeville massacre which saw 69 anti-apartheid protesters killed and 178 wounded for taking to the streets against the regime’s racist pass laws.

In commemorating the massacre, the UN General Assembly called on all world states and organizations to participate in a program of action to combat racism and racial discrimination.